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Actually, I am not sure if it still exists, but CDE used to stand for Common Desktop Environment. IT was supposed to be a standard X client that would run on any unix variant. It would make it possible to sit down at any *nix, and be able to know where everything was.

There are many different clients out there. Sawfish, enlightenment, gnome, kde, etc etc. Gnome and KDE are just the most popular, and probably the best developed.

My understanding was that the X-windows system is basically a method for rendering and sending information regarding the windows to a client (although with X-windows, for some reason, they like to switch around 'client' and 'server' definitions due to the way it works, I'm speaking from the 'who has the cards = Server' standpoint.)

GNOME and KDE are sort of like... Themes, if you will. No, scrap that... They're window managers. Without them, all you get is a window that is fixed on the desktop. They provide the buttons (close, maximize, minimize, window-shade) the resizing things, the mouse cursors, any task-bar-like things on the bottom of the screen, the scrollbars, what mouse clicks do what, what hotkeys do what, etc.

So it's a bit like having an engine, seats, and wheels as X-windows. KDE or Gnome would give you the steering, the doors, the body of the car, the paint on it, the dashboard accessories...

Souleman you seem to be the only one who correctly id'd cde. It IS the common desktop env of solaris. So no, I didn't mean kde guys. Gnome will move on due to SUN's committment to it replacing solaris' own dt. RiOtEr - I thought that was the beta 2.0 - do you know if it is?
Gnome is like a gui for many ux not just linux. It'll run on x86 or sparc or....

Try it out if you don't like your kde, otherwise kde is just fine by itself. good replys all.